Most business owners know that Instagram and Facebook advertising can help to grow both their customer base and their sales. It’s likely they’ve taken courses, watched videos, or looked to other resources for help to hone in on a strategy.

Here’s the thing: It’s EASY to get started with Facebook and Instagram advertising.

That “boost post” button is awfully attractive and simple to use. Oftentimes, in fact, the “boost post” button serves as the cornerstone for most small business’ Facebook and Instagram advertising.

However- even the most engaging, highly-targeted boosted post is just not going to achieve your desired results unless your objective is to garner more likes, comments, or shares on that piece of content; Even then, there are better, more strategic ways to accomplish this.

It’s at this point that business owners may decide to outsource this aspect of their business; to free-up their time, to improve their return on investment, and to truly harness the platform’s power to their advantage.

When business owners come to us at The Caruana Group for a quote for our ads management services, nearly all of them frequently boost posts, or even creating ads through the ads manager- but they just don’t have the time to learn the intricacies of optimizing their ad sets or split-testing their ad’s creative elements.

The mistake many of these folks make when shopping for an Ads Specialist or Social Media Manager is that they aren’t asking the questions that will truly highlight that agency or freelancer’s experience in this specific arena, and it won’t leave them with enough information to make the best decision for their business.

Here is a checklist of questions you should be asking BEFORE you outsource any digital advertising; Whether it be Facebook and Instagram, or any other paid platform.

The answers candidates provide to these questions will paint you a much clearer picture not only of their qualifications but also if they can justify the fees they will charge you. Since social media management and ads management is a career with low-barriers to entry, you need to be EXTREMELY diligent in who you hire. It is easy to unknowingly hire someone that can not or will not deliver quality content or optimal results based on your needs.

These questions will weed out those ads managers who are not truly immersed or invested in the industry. If any of these questions cause the candidate to squirm or struggle- consider it a red flag. These are basic questions that should be simple for Facebook and Instagram ad-experts to answer on their feet.

Some of them may not apply to your business model, so you can skip those!

How long have you been advertising online?

What are your preferred platforms for advertising my specific type of business?

Tell me about your most successful retargeting strategies.

How much ad-spend have you managed throughout your career? What is your typical ad-spend per month across your agency or freelance business?

Do you charge a retainer, hourly fee, or based on results

Do you charge more once a client reaches a certain monthly or ad-spend?

How many creatives do you typically split-test per campaign?

How do you optimize your content for each platform?

How often is content cross-posted, and which aspects are re-used? Creative, copy, or both?

Do you do your own creative work and graphic design for ads- or is this something you outsource or would need me to provide?

How are you handling Facebook’s recent changes to ad-targeting rules, including eliminating income as a potential target?

How do you determine a campaign, ad set, or ad’s success? What metrics do you look at?

How often do you monitor each campaign, ad set, and ad? Do you utilize Facebook’s automated rules to make this task easier?

What reporting can I expect on the ads’ performance, and how often can I expect these reports?

Tell me about your content creation process.

Do you use a content calendar?

What software do you use for ads, content posting, or both?

Will I be able to approve ads and posts before they are live? How is this done?

How many simultaneous ads, ad sets, and ads can we simultaneously run together?

How do you determine the point at which a campaign, or an aspect of a campaign, is offering diminishing returns?

How do you set goals for your campaigns, in terms of return-on-ad-spend, lead generation, or website clicks?

What is your ad-creation process like? How do you determine each ad’s objective, targeting, and creative?

How long do you let an ad run before making strategic changes to the targeting or creative?

If we have to increase or decrease an ad’s budget, how do we communicate that to you, and how do you handle scaling campaigns or decreasing/ pausing a budget?

Do you have any case studies for my specific business model or industry? May I reach out to those clients to learn about their experience?

What is your average client turnover rate?

How do you structure your contracts (or, do you require a contract)?

Who is responsible for ad-spend, and how will it be paid?

Will you be running ads under my own businesses ad-account, or your own?

What are your business hours and how will we be communicating with each other?

Do you run “page-likes” campaigns- why or why not?

Do you integrate messenger bots or email marketing into your strategies?

Do you also provide other digital marketing services, such as developing landing pages and lead-magnets, or will I be providing my own? What is your lead generation strategy for my business?

How do you handle holidays and major events? Will campaigns be paused- and how will you communicate this strategy to me?

If you want to grab this list in an easy-to-download PDF- click here! If you’re interested in our ads management services, click here.